Wednesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading: 1 Corinthians 3:1-9

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33:12-13, 14-15, 20-21

Gospel: Luke 4:38-44

Daily readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090226.cfm

After the synagogue, Jesus goes to Simon’s house. Simon’s mother-in-law is sick with a high fever. They ask Jesus to help her. He stands over her, rebukes the fever, and it leaves. She immediately gets up and serves them. There is something quietly beautiful about that sequence — received healing, then immediately given back in service. No long recovery period, no announcement, no testimony. She just gets up and serves.

That evening the whole city comes. Everyone who is sick is brought to him. He lays his hands on every one of them and heals them. Demons come out crying his name. He silences them. And then — before dawn the next morning — he slips away to a solitary place. When the crowd finds him and tries to keep him, he says: I must preach the good news to other cities also. For this reason I have been sent. He does not belong to Capernaum. He does not belong to the crowd’s need for him to stay. He belongs to the mission, and the mission moves.

Paul writes to the Corinthians about a similar impulse — the human tendency to claim ownership of the thing God is doing. I belong to Paul. I belong to Apollos. Paul says: what is Apollos? What is Paul? Ministers through whom you believed. I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth. Neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything — only God, who causes the growth. We are God’s co-workers; you are God’s field. The growth is not ours to control. We do our part — we plant, we water, we get up and serve after we have been healed — and then we let God be the one who makes things grow.

A few questions to sit with tonight:

1. Simon’s mother-in-law received healing and immediately served. Is there a grace I have received — a healing, a gift, a second chance — that I have been holding onto instead of turning outward in service?

2. The crowd tried to hold Jesus in place. Is there a way I have been trying to keep God contained — in one format, one practice, one community — rather than following where he is moving?

3. Paul says jealousy and rivalry are signs of spiritual immaturity, of still being fed milk. Is there a rivalry or comparison — with someone at work, in my community, even in my faith — that is keeping me from growing up?

4. Jesus withdrew to a solitary place before dawn. Is there enough silence in my days for me to hear what he might be saying about where I need to go next?

One small thing for tomorrow:

Tomorrow, after you receive something good — a kind word, a moment of grace, a prayer that lands — let it move you outward. Do something for someone else before the day is over, even something small. That is Simon’s mother-in-law’s way.

Lord Jesus, you healed her and she got up and served. You are always moving — to the next house, the next city, the next person who needs you. Help me not to cling to where you were yesterday but to follow where you are going today. Teach me the difference between the part I am called to do and the part that belongs to you alone — the planting and watering that are mine, and the growing that is yours. Keep me from jealousy and rivalry that would keep me small. Lead me to the solitary place when I need it, and back into service when the time comes. Amen.

If you would like to share: is there a moment when you received something from God and found yourself wanting to give it back to someone else right away?